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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

If there's one piece of equipment that exemplifies our kitchen, it's our ancient, enameled aluminum bowl. Deemed "the bread bowl" by my mom and I, it's been in the family at least as far back as my grandfather, who would churn out a minimum of 4 loaves a week by hand for their household. The finish is nowhere near as white as it used to be, and even the stamped name of the manufacturer has been worn off with decades of loving use and washing, but it is still sturdy and watertight and the cradle for our yearly batches of pie dough, challah, brioche and chocolate chip cookies. It's funny that I feel so strongly about a bowl, but I've actually asked my mom to will it to me so that I can keep our traditions alive.

One of the uses for the bread bowl that my mom never capitalized on was it's perfect boule-forming capabilities. A sourdough on a floured towel flips out into a perfect round dome, ready for baking, and the lightweight material of the bowl itself makes for easy transfer. To me, it only seemed natural that for this month's "Treasured Cookware" #RecipeRedux I focus on the bowl's old and new uses, and share a recipe I designed for my mom to enjoy after we returned from a trip to the Evergreen Brickworks Farmer's Market last Summer.

Alli's Bread was carrying a wild blueberry and walnut loaf that caught our attention - with a thick crust, the promise of sourdough tang and hearty whole grains supporting fresh local blueberries and walnuts, it was definitely a showstopper. We only wound up taking home a demi-boule, though, since mom isn't too fussy about walnuts in general. Sliced and toasted with a smear of honey, the loaf was deemed passable, but mom did mention wanting a different nut of some kind - preferably one that was crunchier. When I suggested the combination of hazelnuts and blueberries, her eyes lit up and I knew we had a jumping off point.
A little Googling later found me on The Fresh Loaf, where I found a perfect looking recipe by txfarmer for Blueberry Sourdough with Hazelnuts. I played around with it slightly, adding allspice, spelt flour and multigrain cereal for extra flavour and texture. Like all good sourdoughs, this one took a while to get to the final baking stage, but it was worth it - and the trusty bread bowl made just as good of a banneton as the traditional wicker baskets. The finished bread was moist, crusty, just dense enough to be substantial, and filled to the brim with fruit and nuts. Slices soon began disappearing, topped with creamy butter, peanut butter, jam and honey, and it was definitely one of my mom's favourites to date!